Recently, services available for retrieving or downloading various kinds of pieces of information using portable terminal apparatus have been propagated. In such the services, there has been a growing interest in identification of an individual user who receives the services, the identification being necessary when receiving the services, and in improvement on data security.
As to identifying individuals, it has conventionally been proposed that, to permit only a specific person registered beforehand to use his or her portable terminal apparatus, the portable terminal apparatus have a function to identify individuals. For example, there has been such the portable terminal apparatus for mobile communication and an individual identification method as disclosed in the publication (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. H11-262059).
FIG. 26 is a block diagram showing the portable terminal apparatus for mobile communication disclosed in this Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication. ROM 60 mounted in the portable terminal apparatus stores sets of fingerprint data of users as sets of the individual identification (ID) data beforehand.
Upon power application to the portable terminal apparatus, the individual ID data stored in the ROM 60 (nonvolatile memory) is retrieved and temporarily stored in RAM 59 (volatile memory) that is capable of high-speed access. First, a user presses a transmission button 56 provided with a fingerprint identification sensor 57 on a Liquid Crystal Display (hereinafter called LCD) 56 of portable terminal apparatus. He or she then enters a telephone number and presses the transmission button 56 on the LCD again, thereby performing transmission processing.
During this transmission procedure, when the transmission button 56 is first pressed, the fingerprint identification sensor 57 reads his or her fingerprint, types of which are converted to dot patterns, and then they are processed as data. A fingerprint identification circuit 58 compares sets of the fingerprint data thus acquired with sets of the individual ID data stored as fingerprint data when the user has bought the portable terminal apparatus, and then if they mismatch, the transmission is disabled. Only when they match, the user can enter the telephone number successfully, and then the transmission processing is performed through a communication-processing unit 61 and a wireless-processing unit 62.
By this method, however, the individual is identified at the portable terminal apparatus side so that the portable terminal apparatus has a large load of information processing imposed thereon, thereby accompanying large power consumption. Therefore, it is difficult to downsize the portable terminal apparatus and to make it power-thrifty. Further, each portable terminal apparatus can be used by only one specific individual, not by any others, that is, in a fixed one-to-one relationship between the portable terminal apparatus and the individual, thus lacking in flexibility.
Also has known such a conventional type of display system that gives an outdoor advertisement by setting image display device using a cathode-ray tube, discharge tube, light-emitting diodes or the like outdoors, in station premises, or on passages and supplying advertisement image such as a moving or still picture to that image display device.
By thus displaying an advertisement image etc. on an outdoor advertisement system installed in such a place, it is possible to always display the information of the moving or still picture and continuously supply that advertisement to many unspecified people passing by there.
Also, to display an advertisement image at an outdoor advertisement system installed at such a place, each image display device has usually been provided with equipment for storing and reproducing a relevant image program, wherein specified information is displayed thereon.
When, however, such a large-sized image display apparatus is used to display the contents of an advertisement to many unspecified passers-by, even if any one of them is interested in the advertisement material and want to get further information related to the displayed material, he or she cannot get it on the spot.
Alternatively, since there provides each image display apparatus with equipment for storing and reproducing the image program, it is difficult to appropriately control display of the advertisement material on the plural pieces of the large-sized image display apparatus.
Further, a large-sized image display system that combines large-sized image display apparatus and portable terminal apparatus has been known. For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. H11-262035 discloses a contacting method wherein during the adjustment of such the large-sized image display apparatus, the apparatus is observed remotely so that based on the observation result thereof the adjustment may be conducted at the set place of that large-sized image display apparatus.
FIG. 27 is a diagram showing a configuration of the large-sized image display system disclosed in the above publication. An image display portion 42 of the large-sized image machine 41 is comprised of many units 43 arrayed both vertically and horizontally. A transmitter side includes an adjustment signal input device 46 for allowing an operator 45 who observes the brightness, hue, etc. of an image displayed at the units 43 to input adjustment data on the basis of the observed ones, a MODEM 47 for linking this data over a telephone line, and a portable telephone 49 for transmitting the data.
A receiver side includes a portable telephone 51 for receiving a radio wave transmitted from a central office 50, a MODEM 52 for converting it to a control signal, and a control device 53.
In this configuration, the operator 45 who stays at a position away from the image display portion 42 of the large-sized image machine 41 by a predetermined distance observes the brightness, hue, etc. of an image (a part of the image) displayed on the units 43. Based on the observation result thus obtained, the operator 45 also enters sets of the data such as the number of the unit 43 and the brightness, hue, etc. to be adjusted into the adjustment signal input device 46. The sets of data thus entered are transferred to the portable telephone 51 through the MODEM 47, the portable telephone 49, and the central office 50.
The sets of data thus received at the portable telephone 51 are converted to a variety of kinds of sets of the control data at the MODEM 52 and then entered to the control device 53. The units 43 are controlled by the control device 53 based on these sets of the data so that they can be set in an image display state intended by the operator 45.
Although the large-sized image display system as shown in FIG. 27 uses a portable telephone as the portable terminal apparatus, this portable telephone cannot retrieve or download various pieces of information from a display screen of the image display portion 42 of the large-sized image machine 41 because it only transmits and receives the adjustment signal for adjusting the units 43.
It is an object of the invention to provide a distributing system that enables a user of a portable terminal apparatus to be identified as an individual, that enables plural users to use the same terminal apparatus, that enables the terminal apparatus to be downsized and the power dissipation thereof to be saved, and also that enables solidarity of owners themselves of the portable terminal apparatus to be grown. It is another object of the invention to provide a distributing system and a distributing method each available for identifying an individual, whereby the individual is easy accessible to the information related to materials displayed on a large-sized image apparatus so that convenience of accessing (distributing) information can be enhanced, and whereby solidarity of owners themselves of the portable terminal apparatus can be grown.